These are not poker rooms. Rooms enclose three-dimensional space. We humans use them to meet in person and exchange physical tokens of money. Robots are quite rare. What you list above are websites, please let us not confuse the two on this website.
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Lee Daniel CrockerMay 2 at 0:26

5 Answers
5

PokerStars ignores American players because we can't pay. The Europeans, South Americans, Middle Easter blocks and Asia all get better hands more consistently IMHO. Sometimes (often) it feels like it's rigged to favor them. I had AAAKK full house and got beat by someone from Brazil who got a Royal Flush. His stack was already over 40 Gs, and he took my measly 8 Gs and left me chipless. I didn't get another good hand for weeks.

I've also seen PokerStars payout wrong numerous times. I had the exact same hand as another player. I got paid and he didn't. I tried to report it, and they said I was mistaken. I was not mistaken. We both had A-3 for a hand of A-2-3-4-7, which was the low in Omaha Hi/Lo for that hand, but he didn't get anything. I've been paid wrong or missed out on payouts numerous times, once for an ace high flush with the next best hand three of a kind. I've had higher straights ignored, even a straight flush once that I didn't get payout on. And it seems the computer always give it to a non-American. Since they bought out Full Tilt Poker, I'm seeing the same thing happen there.

Do you have evidence of the hands where you claim there were incorrect payouts? Seems as if there would be an easy resolution to that! As for believing the games are rigged, it's useful to know that ALL the sites hands are independently audited for fairness; No problem has ever been found! This answer seems less of a comparative study of the pros/cons of sites, and more of a rant. Could you perhaps give a critique on the positives and negatives of the various sites you've played on. Thanks
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Toby Booth♦Sep 29 '13 at 20:12

My reason? Pokerstars rewards were non-existent. I've had more bonuses, gifts and rakeback from 888 in a month than I got in years at Pokerstars. Yes, the Pokerstars rake is very low but they take nothing and give nothing IMHO.

888

Pros

Catch a table at the right time and players will literally give money away. Not kidding - sometimes you'll almost feel bad about it!

I play on PokerStars myself so I feel you here. It's the best there is. Now, I never played mid- or high-stakes so I don't know what's there, but I can give you some insight based on my experiences.

I don't think PokerStars needs any more introduction. They have the largest player pool, the biggest variety of games and you can find games non-stop.

Full Tilt Poker Are owned now by PokerStars so the possibility of another Black Friday to return on this site is slim to none.

Pros

You can transfer money from FT to PS and vice-versa quickly and easily. Very useful if you find a nice promotion on the other site;

The games are somewhat softer than those before Black Friday and definitely softer than PokerStars;

Nice, decent traffic outside peak hours;

Best software in graphics section, if you ask me

Cons

Low traffic at Rush (for those who dig Rush);

Even if the graphics is awesome, sometimes it can be too much for grinding. In this respect, PokerStars rocks!

Low traffic at higher stakes in non-peak hours.

888 poker can be a very good choice if you want a quick buck and very fishy plays. So fishy that, coming from PokerStars background, you'll either won't believe it and/or start laughing. I surely did.

Pros

One of the fishiest site I played at. At stakes up to NL20 there are easy money. Just play ABC and watch for things at the other players that you can exploit. And you will not wait too much;

Tournaments are fishy too, especially at low buy-ins. If you pay attention, you'll end up ITM more often than you should.

Cons

Traffic. You'll find decent traffic all day long only at NL2 and NL10. At the other stakes you will be forced to play in the evening or night, because at other times there won't be any tables open. Even so, expect 8-9 tables opened, in the best case, even at peak hours;

VIP Scheme. The 888 VIP scheme has six tiers. The lower 3 tiers can be easily achieved but they offer ridiculously low rakeback (2% or so). The higher 3 tiers offer better (but hot great) rakeback, but it's very hard to reach them because of the low traffic described at 1. I can say that the money earned at the tables makes up for the low rakeback, but money earned and rakeback are two different things;

The shop. It's rich in offers, but the points are, again, hard to gather.

About Titan Poker I have mixed feelings. I played a few years go and the games were so nitty...

Pros

Nitty games. Can be beaten straightforwardly

Cons

Graphics. It's a personal preference, but I don't like it at all. Plus there are some annoying sounds, which can turn into a nag house if multitabling;

I've always been a pokerstars player, once I installed full tilt for a promotion and paired with my pokerstars account. Just couldn't get past the terrible, extremely polluted, interface. Transfered my promo cash back, uninstalled it, and never looked back.
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petervazMay 3 '13 at 13:37

Full Tilt is pretty good, and since its now linked to Pokerstars you can send money between the two freely which could be handy if you bust your roll on one, instead of depositing again you could just send yourself money from the other one.

I have always found the Full Tilt software quite nice and I always feel that i get rivered a lot less there although thats probably just my imagination.

As a US player, the only one of these that I can talk much about is Carbon Poker. They are the largest site still operating on the Merge network. The software is good by the standards of most sites that support US players, but lacking in comparison to what I remember of Pokerstars and Full Tilt. The worst thing about Carbon is undoubtedly the connection to the Merge network. They have demonstrated a history of making policies that aren't all that great for the players. Some examples include: halting new player account creations for three months following Black Friday (because they weren't prepared for the level of growth they saw), banning player-to-player transfers for all players, removing rakeback for new players AND for players who signed up with it in the past, and much more.

Partially as a result of these types of policy changes, Lock Poker and Black Chip Poker both left the Merge network during 2012. At the time, they were each the largest site on the network. Those sites leaving has had a bit of an impact on the availability of games - you won't find nearly as many options as you see on Stars/Tilt.

You mention that the worst thing about Carbon is its connection to the Merge network and that Lock Poker and Black Chip Poker have left the Merge network. Do you think Lock and Black chip are better for leaving? Would you recommend them over Carbon?
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JFoMar 28 '13 at 18:24

It's kind of a toss-up. In my opinion, policies at Black Chip and Lock are more player-friendly, but the software at Carbon is a bit better. For me, better software doesn't overcome the policies, but for some people it might.
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Jeffrey BlakeMar 29 '13 at 3:30